Congress rushes crisis managers to Bihar to keep flock together after poll results

Some Congress leaders feel there is a need to keep the party MLAs united and together in the event of a result that may encourage horse trading for government formation.

Buoyed by the exit polls’ projections of gains for the Grand Alliance (GA), the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has rushed its senior leaders, including Randeep Singh Surjewala, to Bihar to keep its flock together after declaration of the assembly polls results on Tuesday.

Randeep Singh Surjewala had recently played an important role in saving Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan. (HT Photo)

Wary of the setbacks suffered by the party in Goa and Manipur, where Congress was elbowed out of power despite emerging as the single largest party, Surjewala, along with former Congress general secretary Avinash Pande, is supposed to keep in constant touch with all the elected leaders by bringing them all to the state capital once the results are announced.

Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Madan Mohan Jha said Surjewala, who is also the chairman of the party’s election management committee, has reached Patna on Sunday evening, while Pande, chairman of the BPCC screening committee, was expected to arrive on Monday, a day before the counting. Jha, however, dismissed the development as a routine convention in the party to send senior leaders as observers for the counting day.

AICC member and senior leader Kishore Kumar Jha said it was a good decision to take precautionary steps in the wake of the vulnerability factor that has recently worked against the Congress. “Some of the senior party leaders, including the former BPCC chief and a few sitting MLAs, have changed their loyalty in the recent past in Bihar,” said Jha.

Another senior leader, wishing anonymity, feared that the BJP might go to any extent to keep the GA away from power, as was seen in Karnataka, where the Congress-Janata Dal Secular (JDS) alliance collapsed after several legislators quit the alliance. In Goa and Manipur, the BJP formed the governments despite the Congress winning the maximum number of seats.

Unwilling to take any chance, the AICC has sent one of the party’s best crisis managers, Surjewala, to foil any possible National Democratic Alliance (NDA) move to prevent the GA from forming a government in the state if it emerges victorious as predicted by most exit polls.

Recently Surjewala’s political acumen in this regard came to the fore when the Congress managed to save its government in Rajasthan after a group of legislators led by former deputy CM Sachin Polit revolted against CM Ashok Gehlot.

“Surjewala not only foiled the BJP’s design, but managed to keep the party united during his month-long stay in Rajasthan,” said Jha.

AICC media panelist and MLC Prem Chandra Mishra, however, ruled out the fear of poaching from the BJP, saying that the GA was set to storm to power with a thumping majority by bagging not less than 140 seats. “GA acquired popularity as it touched on real issues, while the NDA resorted to negative campaigning,” said Mishra, adding that the Congress was likely to win at least 50 seats.

BJP leader Sanjay Tiger, however, said that the NDA would easily get past the majority mark and the exit polls would prove to be wrong. “Exit polls had gone wrong in Bihar in 2015,” said Tiger.

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Former head of economics department of Patna University and political analyst Nawal Kishore Chaudhary said that nothing could be ruled out at a time when power politics was at its worst form.

“The BJP can go to any extent to tamper with the mandate. Nitish Kumar is also not immune to it. People’s mandate was abused in the past also, as the era of ideological politics and respect for democratic norms has been on the wane,” said Chaudhary.